The Fabulous Home DIY Tiled Boho Flowerpot and A Dash of Bohemian Style History

**This post is sponsored by Mosaic Tile Outlet. However, all opinions of the products we’ve chosen to use in this tutorial are 100% our own based on personal experience in using the materials presented in the following paragraphs.**

Today’s project starts the first of a series dedicated to spring decorating.  We’re going to make a tiled flowerpot that will tie in with the boho style wall border that we’re going to create in our kitchen.

Let’s start by talking a bit about Bohemian Style… What it is and what it’s not. The history of Bohemian movement starts back in Bohemia, Czech republic, where a nomadic group of wandering artists known as gypsies created their art, practiced what we call mysticism today, and sold the first vintage style artwork to the township.  The term Bohemian itself originated in Paris where a large group of the gypsies or Romany had settled and earned the term Bohemiens from the French people.

Characterized by artsy clothing and mixtures of colorful patterns (not florals)  and threadbare fabric the bohemian lifestyle took on its own cult like following and broke out of the norm of society’s standards and popular fashion regimens. Today, the movement has firmly made its way into popular home decorating blogs and fashion companies such as the Jungalow, Free People,  Em Henderson’s blog, Anthropologie, and many more globally recognized entities like these.

Keep in mind that Bohemianism doesn’t generally include floral patterns. When florals are present in a pattern then they’re generally dark and very small. However, bohemians are known to wear flowers in their hair. Sometimes I see brands mistakenly label an over sized floral dress with flower patterns the size of your palm. This is more Melrose chic style than bohemian.

Now that we’ve given you an idea of what boho is and what it’s not then let’s move on to our exciting project of the month. Live Well Be Fabulous actively promotes a Mediterranean boho lifestyle so when we had the opportunity to collaborate with Mosaic Tile Outlet and to get our hands on a couple of the first few gorgeous pieces of their Spanish  tile line then we jumped at the chance to do so.

Here at the Leigh house we’re experiencing both home decor and structural renovation mode so this project comes at the perfect time. We’re going to use the samples of the tiles we’ve chosen for our kitchen wall border to create a very unique flowerpot for a very special plant. In the near future, we’ll be tiling the baseboard of our kitchen wall. To prepare for this project and to find the perfect set of tiles, we ordered samples from various stores. The winner? Mosaic Tile Outlet‘s beautiful Spanish Tile series.

Since the tiles were just too pretty to collect dust, I decided to do what we do best here at Live Well Be Fabulous… I chose to use the samples in a super cute project, something that you can also make.

Let’s get started!

The first step is to choose a flowerpot with either a textured or porous surface. We chose a 13″ bronze patina style pot because the color made the perfect backdrop for the four colors in our project. You can also choose a terracotta pot if you like and paint the exterior in the color of your choice.

Chose a quick drying all-purpose gel adhesive. I wouldn’t buy one that takes longer than 30 seconds to bond. Otherwise, you’ll spend more time holding tiles than completing your project.

Since we’re now bohemian history experts, we know that artsy patterns (not florals) make up the heart of the style. Have fun with this step. Be a big kid. Let your inner grade schooler shine through.

For this design, I knew that I wanted to use as many of the blue tiles as possible, the perfect color to go with our brown pot. Alternating colors became the goal. I chose to cut the 1 X 1 tiles into smaller squares and separated the brown tiles.

The tiles come secured to a mesh backing which is used as a spacer for grout. In this project, we’re going to keep the mesh on back and use our bonding glue to cover it. Don’t worry. The mesh doesn’t detract from the design. We made an entire back splash in our kitchen using this technique. However, you need to make sure you trim the mesh so that it’s not sticking out once the tiles bond to the pot.

Lay the tiles out in the patterns you chose by row. I wound up improvising a bit mid-project. You probably will too. The important thing is that you have a general idea of what you’d like to do before you begin bonding the tiles.

The surface of the pot needs to be textured to make sure you get the best bond. If you go with genuine terracotta then you’re all good. Even the roughed patina plastic resin pot we used in this project worked well. If you’re going for plastic then you’ll need a piece of sandpaper with a texture between 100-150 grit. Lightly sand the surface and clean the pot when you’re done. Otherwise, we’re ready for step 6!

Do a dry run of your design by placing each tile in its place on the pot. Start with the middle tile and work your way out from the middle. Plan to spend no less than 15-20 minutes (depending on your glue’s bond speed) on each side. When adding glue to the tiles make sure you cover the entire backside of the tile. I added two coats of glue.

Press firmly from the inside of the pot as well as outside and hold the tile in place for the required bonding time to complete. It’s best to allow each side plenty of time to dry before moving to the next. If you get impatient then tiles will fall. Trust me on that one.

Repeat these steps on all four sides.

Take a step back and pat yourself on the back for creating the conversational piece of your next party. Oh, and don’t forget to post your photos on Instagram.

**The post The Fabulous Home DIY Tiled Boho Flowerpot and A Dash of Bohemian Style History first appeared on Live Well Be Fabulous on February 20th, 2019.**